


going two by two

by annperkinsface



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-17
Updated: 2015-03-17
Packaged: 2018-03-18 07:30:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3561356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annperkinsface/pseuds/annperkinsface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She still feels a little sharp—it'll take longer than they have to settle back into her skin—but Sapphire's singing, and smiling, Steven gurgling right along, and Ruby doesn't know how everything can feel so much less while this feels like so much more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	going two by two

Ruby's palm itches. She fidgets and crams them under her armpits, wishing she could feel Sapphire's leg through all that fabric. She still feels a little sharp—it'll take longer than they have to settle back into her skin—but Sapphire's singing, and smiling, Steven gurgling right along, and Ruby doesn't know how everything can feel so much less while this feels like so much more.

"Keep that up and you'll be a better singer than me," Sapphire laughs, tickling the underside of his belly. Steven's trickles out, reminding Ruby of forest brooks, of sun warmed harbors. Of Rose Quartz.

Ruby snorts, rough but warm, hands falling awkwardly to her lap. "Not possible."

"Oh, I don't know," Sapphire says. "He could do anything. Be anything."

"Well, yeah," Ruby says, feeling the truth of it resonate inside her even as she plays dumb. "Shape-shifting and what not."

Sapphire's head shakes. Her gaze is riveted on Steven but the crook of her smile is all Ruby's. It pulls at her the way everything about Sapphire does—her scent and skin and the way their gems fit together—and Ruby wants Sapphire's head to turn; to feel that smile against her mouth.

Steven's laughter rings out again, making Ruby flush as she comes back to herself. Sapphire grins and tickles his feet, the sun at her back. It catches in his hair, lights up his eyes. They're so brown. So human.

Ruby traces a line down his nose and doesn't realize it until Steven's face scrunches up, his eyes crossing as he tries to follow her finger. She jerks back.

"You should hold him," Sapphire says, shifting Steven, who keeps looking at Ruby with wide, liquid eyes. "We're going to have to fuse back soon."

Ruby's heart goes double time at the thought of being fused again and then drops into her stomach. "I dunno, Saph." She scratches her cheek. "He's so...tiny."

"You've held him before," Sapphire says.

"That's—" Stronger, steadier. Longer fingers. Hers were small, stubby, and not nearly as careful. Ruby swallows. "I don't want to hurt him."

Sapphire just smiles. "That fear isn't new. None of this is. We've been scared of hurting him before, see? And we haven't. Not now, not ever."

Sapphire takes Ruby's hand, placing it over where Steven's gem would be. It pulses faintly in answer and he giggles, squirming, his onesie lighting up under their fingers.

"Just remember," she says. "You already love him."

Sapphire's hand falls away, and Ruby would snatch it back up but her body's already shifting to take Steven in her arms, and he more than fits; he _belongs_. Ruby holds him close, breathing in baby powdered skin, grinning until her face aches well before Sapphire's arm curves over her shoulders.

"Tiny hands," Ruby laughs, pressing them to her lips, feeling for the first time since they've unfused something close to complete.

**Author's Note:**

> been thinking a lot about what if jailbreak was the first time ruby and sapphire *officially* met steven. you know. not as a baby. and then this shameless self-indulgent fluff happened.


End file.
